Fronting up: UK sustainable food systems in the spotlight

Our latest work is a snapshot analysis of the UK's position on the 2017 Food Sustainability Index ('FSI') - an index produced by the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (‘BCFN’) Foundation and the Economist Intelligence Unit (‘EIU’).

Fronting up: UK sustainable food systems in the spotlight is our analysis of the UK's position in the 2017 FSI. It draws on the FSI results to ask 'how is the UK really doing?' and goes on to set out the initial steps needed for the UK to become a true global leader on food, farming, health, the environment and animal welfare.

The FSI ranks the UK eighth out of the 34 countries included in the index and at a regional level shows the UK to be lagging behind its European counterparts on food sustainability, coming a lowly eighth out of the 10 European countries listed (only ahead of Russia and Greece).

Fronting up alsoreveals the UK to be doing badly on issues including childhood obesity, exclusive breastfeeding rates, healthy life expectancy and climate change action, and argues that it is time to front up to the reality that the UK is not a global leader on food sustainability.